The Shaman
by yllimilly
Summary: YGOFFC S7R2. AU. Honda is the young man his fellow villagers can rely on, but he has eyes only for the outcast living across the snowy plains, harboring only concern for his young childless wife. Chaseshipping.


**The Shaman**

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_**There was a long silence which Otogi dared not break. He felt intoxicated by the taller man's scent, unable to think straight. **_**AU/AR **

**Written for Round Two of Compy's Contest: Chaseshipping. **

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His village was barely visible across the plains. Each flake shone like stars against the black sky, catching light from the moon quarter as they fell. The shower had turned into a blizzard by the time Honda reached the forest, his destination, and frostbite was flirting with the young man's toes. Luckily, the liquor he drank before leaving made him feel warm in his chest and a notch braver than usual.

He had walked almost an hour, despite the cold, to meet the shaman, a young man named Otogi.

He had come from the other side of the mountain as a child and had never gone back, serving the village and its dwellers ever since. As far as he could remember, Honda was always fascinated by the graceful boy who lived alone in a tent in the forest, only coming to the village to perform the ceremonial rain dances. Perhaps Honda's parents had noticed his interest in the dark haired teenage; that would explain why they hastily arranged a marriage between him and Shizuka.

The young shaman had never spoken to him, and likewise. Inside the yurt standing in front of him - a sort of wide, flat tent - he was going to pay him his first visit, breaking years of silence in the process.

It smelled of smoke and burnt flesh. Perhaps game. Honda hadn't had meat since Summer; his stomach growled terribly. He gathered his resolve, ready to make his presence known to the man inside the tent. He didn't know the proper etiquette of tent-visiting either; there seemed to be no door he could knock on.

A flap opened. Honda saw the glow of a fire inside, and an array of skeletons hanging on the 'walls'. He swallowed.

"I don't know what you want from me, and I feel sorry for you," said his improvised host, in a cool and collected male voice, "but if you came here empty handed, you've wasted your time." Green eyes cast a cold look on the newcomer. He was clearly unwelcome here. Or maybe that was how he commonly greeted whoever came to seek his services. Visiting the shaman was common practice, but taboo at the same time, so no one talked about it in the village.

Honda stood still in the snow, not knowing how to react. It looked as if though Otogi had been expecting him.

"I didn't come for a healing, or a fortune telling, or nothing like that. Never have and never will." The brunette's voice was void of emotion.

"Then I have no business with you." The opening disappeared behind the flap, and with it, the glow of the fire that burned inside.

Honda invited himself into the tent, hastily taking his hat off. Otogi, clad in the gray fur of a wolf, was kneeling by the luscious flames, tending to the quail roasting in front of him. He didn't bother standing up, or even turning to face the unwanted guest. "I do not wish to fraternize." Had he not been blinded by emotion and exhaustion, Honda would have sensed the loneliness in his words.

He stretched a bare arm, adorned with gold jewelry, to rearrange the ashes a little, and went back to his original position. From his ears hanged the dice he used for fortune telling. Rumors had it that they were made out of human bones.

"Go back to your wife."

Both men stayed still for a while. Honda couldn't stand being ignored. He breathed hard, balling his fists, controlling himself not to lose his temper.

When he finally broke the ice, his voice was trembling with anger.

"It's your doing, isn't it."

The crouching one remained motionless for a while. He smiled to himself. Honda spoke again.

"You cursed us. Maybe not out of spite. Someone must have asked you to." He grew irritated by the man's indifference. "Don't act like you don't know what I'm talking about."

Honda had raised his voice. He was getting agitated.

Otogi stood calmly and turned to his disheveled guest. Their faces were a few inches apart, and the young men eyed each other for a moment. The reflection of yellow flames danced in his green eyes, and under that moving light, his tribal tattoos seemed to come alive. His black bangs were visible from under the wolf's skull he wore on his head.

"Your friend Jounouchi has been coming to me about this. Told me his sister was barren. He keeps asking me to heal her." He paused, motioning to the meal in the making. "See? That's his quail roasting right here."

Honda was shocked. He never thought his best friend would put his pride aside and beg the shaman for help.

"To be honest, no one ever asked me to curse you. I, personally, have no interest in doing so. Your childless marriage has nothing to do with this," he said, pointing to the die he used for his spells, hanging to his earlobe on a thread.

Otogi licked his lips, dry from being close to the fire, throwing a provocative smirk at the brunette. He brought himself even closer to Honda.

"You never even laid a finger on her, did you."

He knew by seeing Honda's face whiten, that he had struck gold. Seeing Honda angry like this made him want to taunt him even more.

"Don't change the subject", the other barked back aggressively. He grabbed Otogi violently, seizing him by his frail arms. A delicious chill ran down Otogi's spine.

Most villagers were in awe with him, and the others were too afraid to even look at him in the eye. He loathed the men's cowardice and the women's pathetic attempts at paying him with their bodies. The villagers all came to him in secret with offerings of their best meat, their best grain, even their children and spouses, asking him to heal them, to tell them their fortunes, to throw a curse on their relatives or friends. He knew that he was despised in the village; they loathed the outcast as much as they needed him. He depended on them just like they depended on him. All hypocrites. Lowly scum.

They left him all indifferent, except for Honda. No one seemed to hold a grudge against the righteous man. And he had been the only one that had never come to him pleading for a favor. If anything, he respected him. When he stared at him dancing for the harvest, Otogi knew Honda wasn't afraid of him, but rather afraid of something within himself. The forest boy had always stared back, but neither had approached the other.

Now, Honda was the first to dare touch him. At this moment, he might even hurt him. Otogi was surprisingly turned on by the power the taller man had on him. But Honda perceived the unveiled excitement in the shorter man's eyes as arrogance, and he tightened his grip enough to send pain rippling through the weaker man's flesh.

"You take advantage of my people," Honda hissed, their noses almost touching, "no, of my people's plotting against each other. You have every single one of them, man or woman, wrapped around your finger." Honda seemed to be struggling with himself. "I know we are a wicked bunch, but she doesn't deserve this," he added, more quietly, his blood shot eyes riveted to green ones. "Not Shizuka. I can't stand to see her cry". Otogi didn't doubt it one second. But it was not his doing, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"I have tried to make her happy, but I can't!" The taller man's lips shivered. "If only... if only I could _want_ her."

Honda's voice, almost desperate, trailed off in a whisper. "What do you _want _from me...?"

His eyes were pleading for help. He felt vulnerable in the presence of the man who had once been the free-spirited boy he was obsessed with as a child. He wasn't afraid of him. Not because of his status. It had nothing to do with that.

He was afraid of his own words.

He was lost.

There was a long silence which Otogi dared not break. He felt intoxicated by the taller man's scent, unable to think straight.

Honda hated himself for blaming him. He despised himself for hurting someone who was physically weaker. His grip loosened until he eventually let his arms fall by his side, looking defeated, and took a step back, looking anxiously around him, at a loss for words.

Otogi stepped forward, bringing their faces less than an inch apart. His arms still hurt where his hands had held him, and adrenaline was pumping through him.

"I do take advantage of your people's foolishness," he started tentatively. "And I do enjoy controlling their lives to some extent, although it mostly bores me. But for the unhappiness that dwells here," said Otogi, gently placing one hand on the brunette's heart, "you only have yourself to blame."

The taller man was drowning in the bright green eyes before him, drowning in the soothing voice echoing in his ears. "I don't want anything _from _you."

Honda came to the realization that the outcast didn't need magic to have people swooning over him.

He was just plain beautiful. So beautiful that his knees were about to give in.

"I don't want anything_ but _you", Otogi said in a murmur.

Before Honda could say anything, Otogi wrapped his free arm around the other's waist, sealing their lips in a kiss that Honda returned fiercely, pressing the slender body against his with his own kind of raw strength.

He hoped the blizzard would last forever.

***

**Each and every review will be treasured and immensely appreciated, and will help me become a better writer! Thank you in advance!**

_**Milly**_

**Edit: Special thanks to My Misguided Fairytale for pointing out the punctuation problem!  
**


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